Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Rembrandt's Night Watch reenacted by flash mob


(Direct link to video) A Dutch bank sponsored this dramatic re-enactment of Rembrandt's painting "Night Watch" as a flash mob event in a shopping mall.
via BoingBoing

9 comments:

Art Matters said...

This is marvellous !! Thanks for the link.

P.T. Waugh said...

Nice, but my guess is that this isn't a true flash mob. I think that the unsuspecting common folk were paid participants that had to sign waivers in order to be around the actors running with halberds and swords.

Erik Bongers said...

There's a the-making-of as well

This seems to suggest that this was indeed more an on-location film shoot rather than a flash mob and that the crowd was kept at a safe distance when the stunts took place.

But the most important message of this event is a bit lost: allthough sponcered by the ING bank, this event was ment to celebrate the reopening of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

James Gurney said...

Yeah, these events don't seem quite the same when you know they're part of an ad campaign. I wonder what Rembrandt would have thought of it.

Best,
Jim

Craig Banholzer said...

I imagine Rembrandt would have asked for a cut, then made a pitch to paint the ING's board of directors. Nice how they worked in the bit about foiling the heist, something these "cloveniers" might sometimes have had to have done in the line of duty.

carol edan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ernest Friedman-Hill said...


Here's a pretty nice image of the original

P.T. Waugh said...

Here's Improv Everywhere's take on living art: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvBbVA36y1U

playmst4me said...

This is quite a marvelous idea. Combining a so-called "viral" campaign with performance art, itself inspired by classical media. It's like a strange evolution of itself.